Amazing Dogs Are Being Trained To Sniff Out Specific Form Of Cancer

Cancer detection has made remarkable strides over the last few decades, largely in part to dedicated scientists and researchers who have made it their life’s work to give people suffering from the deadly disease a better chance to overcome their cancer.

Since the earlier cancerous cancers are detected the better it is for the patient, researchers, doctors, and scientists are constantly trying to come up with innovative ways to make the diagnosis of cancer less invasive and quick at the same time.

Brian Harris was always on top of his health and was not shy to make an appointment with his doctor if he thought anything was going awry. When Brian went to his doctor complaining of a pain in his groin, he was told it was nothing more than a urinary infection.

Three weeks later, the pain was not only still persisting, it had gotten worse. Brian was sent for blood work that found his PSA levels (the protein the prostate gland produces) were slightly high; a small sign that he could have prostate cancer but nothing concrete.

To find out conclusively if Brian had prostate cancer, he needed have a transrectal biopsy guided by ultrasound technology. The procedure is very invasive and requires a needle being inserted into the prostate through the wall of the rectum. In Brian’s case, 12 tissue samples were removed and examined.

That procedure still didn’t give a conclusive answer to whether or not Brian had prostate cancer. This meant he had to have another procedure that required him to be put under by general anesthesia in order for 24 tissue samples could be removed. It was after the second procedure that doctors were able to detect malignant cells. Brian’s experience is pretty common in prostate cancer detection but advancements are being made that may make procedures like this obsolete.